Spade for a gun trail



Jan. 4, 1938. o. BEARDSLEY SPADE FOR A GUN TRAIL Filed Nov. 22, 1935 Inventor Urie L-E1eards1e At'tur'ne Patented Jan. 4, 1938 UNITED STATES ATENT OFFICE 1 Claim.

(Granted under the act of March 3, 1883, as amended April 30, 1928; 370 0. G. 757) The invention described herein may be manufactured and used by or for the Government for governmental purposes, without the payment to me of any royalty thereon.

5 This invention relates to a spade for a gun trail.

The trail of a gun carriage is provided with a spade which is embedded in the ground and serves to check the recoil of the carriage when the gun is fired. In order to prevent the spade from bending when in action it is customary to construct it with perpendicularly extending braces. Such braces however prevent lateral shifting of the spade and as a result the trail is frequently bent. This condition obtains especially in split-trail carriages where the gun has a wide traversing movement.

The purpose of this invention is to provide a light, strong spade that will permit lateral adjustment in action. This purpose is accomplished by arranging a brace for the spade so that it cooperates therewith in establishing a laterally extending wedge-shaped element.

A preferred embodiment of the invention is 11- lustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which,

Fig. 1 is a plan view of the rear end of a gun carriage trail equipped with the improved spade.

Fig. 2 is a view in side elevation.

30 Fig. 3 is a sectional view on the line 33 of Fig. 2, and

Fig. 4 is a sectional View on the line 44 of Fig. 1.

Referring to the drawing by characters of ref- 35 erence there is shown a portion of a gun trail which, in the present example, is a hollow member comprising side plates 55, an upper plate 6 and a bottom plate I.

A spade member disposed transversely of the trail and extending on opposite sides thereof consists of the usual bent plate whose upper part forms a float 8 and whose lower part forms a spade 9. A segmental plate I is secured along its chord to the upper portion of the spade as by Welding i i and is adapted to engage the bottom plate 7 of the trail with the float 8 engaging the projecting portions of the side plates 55. The attachment of the spade member to the trail is 10 effected in the conventional manner by a plurality of angled plates 52 which are Welded to the trail and spade member.

A curved plate 13 is secured as by welding to the margin of the circular rim of the segmental plate i0 and to the side and bottom margins of the spade 9. The plate I3 forms an arched brace supporting the sides of the spade, and rigidly connecting the sides to the trail, so that the rearward thrust of the trail is distributed over the entire width of the spade. The spade and brace present wedge-shaped portions directed on a line perpendicular to the trail and in view of this arrangement lateral shifting of the trail is rendered possible.

I claim:

A gun trail, a spade member for the trail comprising a segmental plate fixed to the trail, said plate disposed transversely of the trail and ex tending laterally beyond the opposite sides of the trail, a spade coextensive with the segmental plate and attached to the chord thereof and an arched plate attached to the circular margin of the segmental plate and to the sides of the spade.

ORIE L. BEARDSLEY. 

